Owusu Amponsah

Faculty Biography

Owusu Amponsah is an Associate Professor in Planning and the Head of the Centre for Settlements Studies at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. He holds a PhD degree in Planning, a Postgraduate Diploma in Land Management and Informal Settlements Regularisation, a Master of Science Degree in Development Policy and Planning, and Bachelor of Science degree in Planning. His research and professional experiences have been in the areas of sustainable and inclusive city development, informal urbanism, and monitoring, evaluation and learning. He is particularly interested in the policy issues that shape these research areas. Not only are these experiences academic, he has and continues to leave visible footprints in industry and local communities through consultancy works and collaboration research projects.Owusu was the Coordinator of Postgraduate Programmes at the Department of Planning at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, a position he held from 2021 - 2024. From 2016 - 2018 and 2018 - 2020, he served as the Assistant Examinations Officer and Examinations Officer, respectively at the Department of Planning. Currently, he is the Chair of the Programmes' Accreditation Sub-Committee at the Faculty of Built Environment, College of Art and Built Environment. From 2020 to 2025, he served as a Member of the College of Art and Built Environment's Examinations Audit Committee. Prof. Owusu Amponsah was voted the Best Senior Member (Teaching Category) at the second edition of the College of Art and Built Environment's awards night in 2022. He took the Second Runner-Up position at the maiden event of the College's awards in 2020.Prof. Owusu Amponsah teaches Research Methods at both postgraduate and undergraduate levels, Policy Analysis and Housing Policy Development at the graduate level. He also teaches Housing Policy and Strategy and Rural Settlements Planning Workshop (Studio) 1 & 2 at the bachelor's level. Since August 2018 when he was promoted to the rank of a Senior Lecturer, Owusu has supervised the project works and theses of 84 students comprising 45 undergraduate students, 23 M.Sc. students, eight (8) MPhil students and eight (8) Ph.D. candidates. He is currently serving on the PhD supervisory committees of one student each at the University of Montreal and Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL). Owusu Amponsah is an External Examiner to the University of Energy and Natural Resources in Ghana and the Stellenbosch University in South Africa. He also moderates the courses offered by the Department of Planning at the Koforidua Technical University in Ghana.Owusu has authored over 95 research articles in international scientific journals (see: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Owusu_Amponsah?ev=hdr_xprf and https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=yIhsrcwAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate) and nine (9) popular science articles.  His research works are impacting the world of science and knowledge, typified in his citation counts on Scopus, ResearchGate, Google Scholar and all other notable platofrms. He has reviewed articles for highly-rated international scientific journals such as Sustainable Cities and Society, Habitat International, Land Use Policy, Cities, Resources, Conservation and Recycling, Urban Forestry and Greening, and Waste Management, all of Elsevier.Owusu has consulted for a number of organisations including Expertise France on its Sustainable Cities Project - Phase 1, the University of Missouri Assistance Programme (UMAP), Newmont Ghana Gold Limited, Solidaridad West Africa, Canadian Development Foundation, Canadian Cooperative Association, United Nations Development Program (Ghana and Senegal Country Offices), Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) and the Millennium Villages Project. He was the team leader for the: 1) terminal evaluation of the Technical Education Development for Modernized Agriculture in Ghana (TEDMAG) project, 2) the baseline survey for the Character Education Development Initiative of the Kofi A. Tawiah Foundation (KATF) on Selected Schools in Ghana, 3) mid-term evaluation of the Solidaridad West Africa’s Next Generation Cocoa Youth Program (MASO), and 4) Newmont Ghana Gold Limited’s socio-economic baseline study of the households within the Awonso North Enclave Land Access and Resettlement Area. Prof. Amponsah also led the final assessment of the USAID-Ghana’s Improving Productivity and Incomes of Maize Farmers in the SADA Region (USAID-IPIMFS) Activity.He was the Co-Principal Investigator for the Co-operative Development Foundation of Canada (CFC) and SEND-Ghana’s Environmental Sustainability Assessment for the 4R Nutrient Stewardship Program (4R-NSP) and for its environmental strategy for the Food Security through Cooperative in Northern Ghana (FOSTERING) project. He was also the Co-Principal Investigator for the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and the Coalition of Urban Transition’s (CUT) project on 'stock-taking the successes and failures of the National Urban Policy in Ghana and a Research Assistant for the final assessment of the ECOWAS Conflict Prevention Framework (ECPF)'.Owusu is open to collaboration with researchers and academics, industry players and development partners in the areas of monitoring, evaluation and learning; informal urbanisation and sustainable cities. He believes that collaboration is a way to learn from others to enhance his work.